Australia goes nuclear

Australia's Prime Minister John Howard has put energy specialists to work in order to study possibilities to use nuclear power instead of coal. Australia produces most of its power with coal ang gas. The country is also worlds largest coal exporter. BBC reports the specialists are to deliver their report to the government by the end of the year.

The shift from fossil fuels to nuclear power is likely to face opposition from both coal industry lobbies and environmental activists. Fear of global warming and international pressure to lower carbon-dioxide emissions are speakeing for implementing nuclear power. Australia's Meteorology Bureau announced that 2005 had been Australia's hottest year on record. US and Australia are the only major industrialised countries not to have signed the Kyoto agreement.

Uranium mining is a remarkable business in Australia, a country holding 40 percent of the world's known uranium reserves. The country has only one small research reactor in Sidney. Prime minister Howard has stated it being foolish to see the nation as simply an exporter of uranium.

- Read more on BBC News.